


Camp Everlock

by Asylum_Wolf



Category: Escape the Night (Web Series), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Cute, Cute Kids, Cutesy, F/M, Fluff, Gen, I love them all, They're just so cute OMG, Two Shot, Young Love, based on The Haunting Hour
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-15
Updated: 2019-01-15
Packaged: 2019-10-10 13:33:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17426837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asylum_Wolf/pseuds/Asylum_Wolf
Summary: When Calliope and Mortimer take their kindergarten class on a camping trip, they assume it will be a perfectly wholesome, fun-filled trip. But something dark lurks in the forest, and it's waiting for someone to step a little too far off the beaten path...





	Camp Everlock

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Bird_Of_Scarlet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bird_Of_Scarlet/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Tales from Everlock Elementary](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16144913) by [Bird_Of_Scarlet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bird_Of_Scarlet/pseuds/Bird_Of_Scarlet), [CinderScoria](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CinderScoria/pseuds/CinderScoria), [Willowcat88](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Willowcat88/pseuds/Willowcat88). 



> Good lord, guys, I am SO sorry that I've been off ao3 for so long. Life has gotten crazy, I have film, science, and history projects as well as a play to attend to, and I barely have time to read anymore, let alone write! Luckily, I have a snow day where I live so I got some extra time to work and write! I hope you all enjoy this story, I know how much you all love it when our favorite YouTubers are aged down. ;) This story is going to be a Two Shot, however, I want to make more stories similar to this one.

“Everybody out!” 

Mortimer and Calliope began to unload the van of ten excited kindergarteners at their campsite in the Everlock Forest. The campsite, known as Camp Ana-Ciall, was located within a mile of a trailer park with a working restroom, playground, and even emergency WIFI. In other words, it was the perfect place to take a bunch of rambunctious children...or so they thought. 

Safiya emerged from the trailer hesitantly. “Ms. Calliope, I don’t think that it’s a good idea for us to be here.”

“Why, Safiya?” asked Calliope. 

“Ana-Ciall is Gaelic for ‘Madness’.”

“How do you know that?”

Safiya shrugged. “I know stuff.”

Their conversation was interrupted by a blur of green. “Wow!” squealed Rosanna, bolting from the trailer. “This place is so cool!”

Matt quickly followed his ‘sister’ out of the trailer. “Yeah, I bet there’s plenty of cool plants and animals here.”

“Boring!” groaned a voice from inside the trailer. Manny peeked his head out. “Can we go home now? All this nature is bad for my complexion.”

Calliope chuckled. “Manny, you know we’re spending the weekend here, right?”

“It’ll be fun!” encouraged Mortimer. 

“The whole weekend?!” shrieked Nikita. “This sucks!”

“Nature’s boring,” groaned Colleen. “Can I just stay in the trailer?”

“Yeah, I’m with Colleen,” said Joey. 

“No children, we’re going to pitch tents!” said Calliope, trying to sound cheerful even though she knew Manny, Nikita, Joey, and Colleen were less than enthusiastic about spending time in the hot sun and dirt. 

Teala shivered. “S-Spend the night here? Are you sure?” Teala looked around nervously. “There could be bears or wolves or dragons out here.”

Mortimer chuckled. “If there are, we’ll scare them away.”

Teala gave Mortimer a deadpan look. “If there are, I just need to stay ahead of you to survive.”

“Don’t worry Teala, I’ll protect you!” shouted Roi, springing from the top step of the trailer like a superhero. He immediately fell into a puddle of mud. “Cool! Mud!” He began to splash around, and accidentally splashed Nikita.

“OMG eww!” shrieked Nikita. 

“Roi, watch out,” JC lightly reprimanded. 

“Matt! Saf!” shouted Ro, pointing to the playground in the distance. “Let’s go! I wanna swing!”

“Wait! Kids! You can’t go alone!” shouted Mortimer, but they had already headed off. Mortimer groaned and followed them. 

“I wanna play too!” shouted Roi, running to catch up and barreling Mortimer over. 

Mortimer groaned, as he landed in a pile of dirt. “Gotta love nature,” he grumbled, picking himself up. At that point, Roi had been joined by Teala and JC. “Well, let’s go.”

Nikita, Manny, Colleen, and Joey sat down on a picnic bench. 

“Yeah, I think I’m going to do my makeup,” said Nikita.

“Me too,” said Manny.

Calliope sighed. “Children, we’re in nature. You don’t need makeup.”

“There’s a makeup look for every place!” gasped Nikita, seemingly offended by the notion that she should go without makeup. 

“I second that,” said Manny.

Calliope sighed. This would be a  _ long  _ weekend. 

Xxx

“Higher! Higher!” squealed Ro, as Matt pushed her on the swing. “Safiya! Look how high I am!”

Safiya smiled and looked up from the Nancy Drew book she was reading. “I see you!” Every so often she looked up to make sure Ro wasn’t close to falling off the swing. 

“Watch me jump off the top of the jungle gym!” shouted Roi to Teala and JC.

“Oh no you don’t!” shouted Mortimer, running to Roi. But it was too late.

Roi launched himself into the air, hurtling into the sandbox. “Woohoo!” he shouted. “That was awesome! Imma do it again!” 

“Uh, no you won’t,” said Mortimer, ushering Roi away from the climbing equipment. 

Roi ran to the swing and laid on his tummy. “JC, push me!” JC gave Roi a push, and Roi pumped his fist. “Yay! I’m flying!”

“You’re swinging!” corrected Teala.

“Pretend!” insisted Roi. “Let’s play Superhero! I wanna be Superman!”

“Who should I be?” asked Teala. 

“Catwoman!” shouted Roi. “And JC can be Batman!”

The three children ran off in all different directions, pretending to ‘save the day’ while really annoying the heck out of the people in the narby trailer park and giving Mortimer a heart attack. 

“Matt! Saf! Let’s play Hide n’ Seek!” squealed Ro. 

Safiya smiled at Ro’s adorable enthusiasm. “Ok, do you want to hide?”

Ro nodded enthusiastically. “You seek! Count to ten and Matt and I will hide.”

Safiya smiled and covered her eyes. “One...two…three...”

Ro ran to hide behind some play equipment while Matt headed towards the woods. 

“Four...five...six…”

“Matt, don’t go too far! The woods are scary!” hissed Ro.

“Seven...eight…”

“Don’t worry! I’ll be fine!” whispered Matt.

“Nine...ten! Ready or not, here I come!” shouted Safiya. She began to walk around, searching the playground. Ro was fairly easy to spot, however, Safiya pretended not to see her. 

“I wonder where they are…” Safiya snuck up behind Ro. “There you are!” 

Ro jumped in surprise and burst into giggles. “You found me!” she squealed, hugging Safiya. 

“I did! Now let’s go find Matt.”

“I’m not giving you any hints,” said Ro, smugly.

“You will if I tickle you long enough.”

“Noooo!” cried Ro.

Safiya chuckled. “You’re safe for now, but if I get desperate…”

“You’ll never crack me!”

“We’ll see about that.”

Safiya began to search the playground and nearby trailers for Matt, but she couldn’t find him. Eventually, she began to search the edge of the forest but still he was nowhere to be found.

“Ro, I think it’s time for you to tell me where Matt is.” Safiya turned to Rosanna, only to find that Ro looked afraid. 

“He went into the woods...I guess he went deeper in than I thought…”

Safiya could feel Ro’s little fist tighten around her jacket, as though worried a forest creature might come and snatch her up. 

Safiya forced a smile on her face. “He’s got to be nearby…”

“Hey guys…?!”

“Matt!” screamed Ro, dashing in the direction of her ‘brother’s’ voice. Safiya followed until they found Matt. Ro threw her arms around Matt and hugged him tightly. “I thought you were lost!”

“No, I kept the trailer park in sight...but look.”

Matt pointed ahead of them. About a yard away, to their surprise, was a pile of bones.

Ro screamed at the top of her lungs and hid her face against Matt’s shirt, crying. Safiya covered her mouth in surprise. 

Immediately, Mortimer came running to them, surprising them all. “Who screamed?!” he asked, in a panic. 

Matt pointed out the bones and then gestured to Ro. 

Mortimer inspected the skeleton. “It’s just a deer skeleton,” he soothed, placing a relaxing hand on Ro’s back. “Nothing to be afraid of. Sometimes you find this stuff in the woods.” Still, Matt, Ro, and Saf were stunned into silence. “Come on, maybe it’s time to go back to the camp.”

The kids all nodded, and Ro grabbed Matt and Saf’s hands in a vice grip. Mortimer led them back to Teala, Roi, and JC, who were all exhausted from playing Superhero. “Come on guys, I think now might be a good time for a nap.”

Xxx

Mortimer returned to the camp with the kids. Halfway through the mile-long walk, Ro had gotten tired, and after Matt carried her for a couple of yards, Mortimer decided to carry her himself so Matt wouldn’t tire out, too. 

Back at the camp, Calliope had pitched all the tents, apparently without any help from Manny, Nikita, Colleen, or Joey. At the time, Colleen was trying to hang a disco ball from a nearby tree. 

“Hey Calliope!” called Mortimer, approaching the clearing where the campsite was located. “I was thinking now would be a good time for the kids to nap.”

“I am so not even tired!” whined Colleen. 

“Well, it looks like your friends are,” said Calliope, gently. Calliope gestured to the five tents. “One for Rosanna, Safiya, and Colleen; one for Nikita and Teala; one for the Manny, Matt, and Joey; one for Roi and JC; and one for us.”

Mortimer raised his eyebrow, playfully. 

Calliope rolled her eyes. “Don’t joke like that. It’s segmented so there’s a wall between us.”

“Can the wall unzip?”

“It can but it won’t,” said Calliope, sharply. “And it isn’t see-through.”

“Darn.”

“What’re you guys talkin’ ‘bout?” murmured Ro, drowsily.

Calliope chuckled. “You’ll understand when you’re older.”

Calliope quickly unrolled the sleeping bags in the tents and placed the kids’ bags inside. Mortimer gently placed Ro on top of her sleeping bag, while Safiya helped her inside of it and tucked her in. 

Safiya began to dig through Ro’s bag. “Hey Safiya, leave Ro’s stuff alone,” chastised Mortimer.

“I’ve gotta get Blueberry!” said Safiya. “She’ll have nightmares without him!”

“As long as she doesn’t disrupt my beauty sleep, we’re fine,” shouted Nikita from the neighboring tent, putting on an eye mask and sliding into her sleeping bag. 

Safiya pulled Blueberry out of Ro’s bag, and handed the stuffed dog to her. Immediately, Ro hugged it and cuddled it to her chest. 

“I’m still not tired,” grumbled Colleen, however, she fell asleep the moment her head hit her pillow. 

Safiya climbed into her sleeping bag which was located next to Ro. Ro immediately began to cuddle closer and Safiya smiled, wrapping her arms around the small girl. 

In his tent, Matt was a bit uncomfortable. He was pretty sure Manny had a crush on him and, though he didn’t want to offend Manny, he tried to make it clear that he wasn’t interested. Matt made sure to keep Joey between him and Manny during the nap. 

Getting Roi and Teala to go to sleep was a battle that Mortimer barely could handle. During the mile-long walk back to the camp, Roi had become  _ over _ -tired, meaning that he was completely overstimulated and just wanted to run around, preferably in just his underwear. Meanwhile Teala was shaking in Calliope’s arms, afraid that if she went to sleep a spider would crawl into her mouth. 

“Chill out Teala!” groaned Nikita. “Just go to sleep so  _ I  _ can go to sleep!”

“Young man, put your clothes on  _ right now! _ ” shouted Mortimer, chasing Roi around.

Eventually, with some much needed mediation from JC, Mortimer was able to get Roi to relax and get into his sleeping bag. JC was also able to convince Teala that the whole idea of spiders climbing into people’s mouths when they slept was just a myth, and that she’d be fine. 

After finally putting all the kids to bed, Mortimer sat back on the picnic bench with a groan. “We really need to make use of JC more often to calm Roi down. That kid’s gonna be a therapist one day…”

“What’s on your mind?” asked Calliope. “I can tell that something is troubling you.”

Mortimer sighed. Somehow, he was totally transparent to Calliope. “Well...Safiya, Ro, and Matt found some bones in the woods and...call me crazy, but they kind of looked human.”

“What?” asked Calliope.

“But that’s not all, they were all piled up like in some ritual,” said Mortimer. “I told the kids it was a deer so they wouldn’t be scared,”

Calliope sighed. “Today has been stressful for all of us. You probably just imagined that they looked human. When the kids wake up, do some arts and crafts with them. I’ll take a look at the bones. I can identify animals based on tracks and remains.”

“How do you know everything about nature?” teased Mortimer, flirtatiously. 

“It comes with being a gypsy,” said Calliope. “And also having a brain,” she teased.

“Ouch,” hissed Mortimer.

Xxx

Two hours later, at four o’ clock, the kids woke up and started arts and crafts. Ro, Safiya, and Matt seemed to have forgotten about the bones as they each engaged in their own activities. 

Nikita was painting her nails, while Manny designed a ‘designer outfit’ by cutting up and pasting together random pieces of fabric. He had a tiny mannequin for styling from a ‘make your own outfit’ activity box Mortimer had brought along, knowing that Nikita and Manny wouldn’t be interested in anything that didn’t involve fashion. 

Colleen was making a tiny collar made of pipe cleaner for her cat, and Mortimer didn’t have the heart to tell her that that was a choking hazard for the cat.

Joey was playing with a ‘crack open your own geodes’ kit, which Calliope had brought along for the crystal-obsessed child. 

JC was tie-dying a t-shirt, even though he already had fifteen tie-dye shirts. 

Teala was picking flowers and pressing them into a scrapbook. 

“What’re you making, Ro?” asked Safiya, as she colored in a picture of a bat. 

“I’m making friendship bracelets!” squealed Ro, with a sleepy little lisp to her voice. She beamed proudly at Safiya, making Safiya smile, and held up the three bracelets she’d made. They were strung with multicolored beads and alphabet beads. The first bracelet said ‘Matt’, the second ‘Saffeea’, and the third ‘Caleen’. Ro looked so proud that Safiya and Colleen didn’t have the heart to tell her that she’d spelled their names wrong.

“They’re beautiful, Ro!” praised Colleen, as Ro put the bracelet on Colleen’s wrist. 

“Very pretty,” agreed Safiya, putting on her own.

“That’s not how you spell Sofia’s name, this is!” corrected Teala. She quickly wrote ‘Sofia’ on a piece of paper and held it up.

“Nope, that is the exact opposite of how you spell my name.”

Roi leaned over Safiya to see her coloring page. “What the - how are you coloring inside of the lines?!”

“Uh...like this?” Safiya said, demonstrating her coloring. 

“Leave it to Safiya to be perfect at everything,” teased Colleen, making Safiya blush. 

“And what’re you making, Roi?” asked JC.

“Shhh!” hissed Roi. “It’s a secret.”

“Oh, ok,” said JC. But in his head he thought ‘ _ five, four, three, two…’ _

“Ok, ok, I’ll tell you!” said Roi, when JC reached ‘one’. “But you gotta promise to keep it a secret.”

“Sure,” said JC. “This is the quietest you’ve ever been, so I’m not gonna ruin it.”

“I’m making Teala a designer necklace!” cheered Roi. “Speaking of which...Mr. Mortimer!”

“What?” asked Mortimer, coming over.

“I need your finest pieces of pasta,” said Roi. “Twenty-four karat!”

“Really?” teased Mortimer.

“Hmm...make that five billion karat!” cheered Roi.

“Ah, I think I know just what you’re looking for. How about rigatoni?” Mortimer pulled out a big bag of the large pieces of pasta, having planned for macaroni necklaces in advance.

“They’re huge! Perfect! Do you have jewels?” asked Roi.

Mortimer pulled out a bag of stick-on plastic diamonds. “Coming right up.”

“Yay! This is gonna be the most beautifulest necklace ever!” cheered Roi. 

“Hey Matt, what’re you doing?” called Safiya.

“I’m trying to identify the plants at this campsite!” called Matt. “My mom gave me a dichotomous key book for my birthday, and I wanna use it!”

“That’s so cool!” cried Safiya, running over to Matt to check the book out. 

“Boring! That looks like something stupid nerds would buy,” said Manny. 

“How can a  _ nerd  _ be  _ stupid _ ?” asked Matt.

Nikita and Manny starred in shock, as though they’d never thought about that. 

“Illuminati!” Manny dramatically announced, as though that explained everything.

“What’s loom-nati?” asked Rosanna.

“It’s a group of people who-” began Nikita.

“-get together and play fun games!” Mortimer quickly finished, panicking. He knew the young girl would be terrified if she learned anything about the illuminati. 

“Check this out!” Matt said to Safiya, breaking the tension. He pointed to a passage of his book that read ‘Are the tree’s leaves needle-like? If so, turn to question five. Are the tree’s leaves flat? If so, turn to question twelve.’ Matt pointed to the tree he was standing in front of. “The leaves are needle-like, so we turn to question five, which asks about the bark!” 

“Awesome!” squealed Safiya.

“Boring!” shouted the rest of the children.

“I don’t need a book to identify trees!” said Rosanna, walking over to Safiya and Matt.

“Oh really?” teased Safiya. 

“Uh huh!” insisted Ro. “I’ll do it right now!” Ro cleared her throat and pointed at a pine tree. “It’s a TREE!” She smiled proudly. 

Matt chuckled. “But what’s it  _ named _ ?”

Ro thought about it. “Billy!” she announced. “And he probably has fairies living in him, so we should leave him alone.”

“Right,” said Safiya, trying to restrain her laughter. 

Finally, Roi finished his necklace. He shyly approached Teala. “Hey Teals, I have something for you.”

“What is it?”

Roi held out the necklace. Roi had really gone all-out, painting the pastas and bedazzling them with jewels, as well as stringing the necklace with many multicolored glittery beads. 

“Roi! It’s beautiful!” gasped Teala, pulling him into a hug. 

“Aww!” cooed Colleen. “Teala and Roi, sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G!”

Teala and Roi blushed and backed up, but not before Teala took the necklace and placed it around her neck. 

At that moment, Calliope approached the campsite. “Mortimer,” she whispered. “I checked the forest around the playground. The bones aren’t there.”

“What?”

“A park ranger probably cleaned them up so as not to scare the campers,” said Calliope. “In any event, if there was any danger, I’m sure a notice would’ve been sent out to clear the area.”

“Yeah...I guess you’re right,” said Mortimer. 

“Everything’s going to be okay,” said Calliope. “I camped here many times in my youth with the gypsy tribe, and we never even saw a bear.”

“Ok, well...I trust you,” said Mortimer. He then turned toward the kids. “Ok kids! Activity time is over and it’s getting late! How about we build a fire?” 

The kids all cheered enthusiastically as Calliope pulled marshmallows, graham crackers, and chocolate out of a cooler. “Go find some kindling for the fire and some sticks for roasting marshmallows,” Calliope directed the kids. 

The kids took off in all directions. Immediately, Mortimer had to wrestle a pointy stick out of Roi’s hands. Matt and Safiya assessed their sticks for whichever was too wet, too short, too long, too heavy, until they’d found the perfect sticks. In contrast, Nikita and Manny grabbed the first sticks they could find so they wouldn’t have to wander the muddy forest, and immediately sanitized the sticks. 

While searching for a stick, Teala stumbled across a small hole in the side of a dirt ledge. “Huh?” she wondered aloud, as she wandered closer. 

Once she was close enough to peak inside, she was met with the sight of two glowing, yellow eyes. 

Teala screamed and ran back in the direction of the camp.

“Teala!” shouted Calliope, hearing Teala’s scream. Calliope ran into the woods to find the girl, all the while shouting, “Everyone, get out of the woods!”

Teala and Calliope almost crashed into each other not far from camp, and Teala clung to Calliope in terror. “M-Monster! There was a m-monster in the woods!”

“What?” asked Calliope.

“It had these glowing yellow eyes and sharp teeth!” screeched Teala, visibly shaking. 

Calliope paled. “Let’s...let’s get you back to the camp…”

Calliope walked Teala back to the camp, grabbing a stick along the way so Teala could roast marshmallows. 

Xxx

Once they’d arrived back at the camp, Teala and Calliope saw that everyone was already situated in a circle around the roaring fire Mortimer had built. 

“Teala, go join your friends,” Calliope said, gently. 

As Teala raced to sit next to JC and Roi, Calliope felt a deep turmoil within her. On the one hand, she really needed to talk to Mortimer about what Teala had claimed to see. She also probably needed to find a payphone to call the park wildlife service to have the area checked for potentially dangerous animals. On the other hand, however, Calliope and Mortimer couldn’t talk alone because that would mean leaving the kids alone near the fire, and nobody trusted Roi with that responsibility. 

_ I’ll talk to him after the fire, when the kids go to sleep, _ Calliope resolved to herself.  _ We may have to leave early tomorrow instead of camping on Sunday, but better that than tangle with a dangerous creature.  _

Calliope approached the fire and sat down on a picnic bench, listening to a campfire story Roi was telling. “...the monster had the ten kids cornered against a giant tree. It bared it’s ten-inch fangs and roared a roar that shook the trees. Blood and spit flew from its mouth! It crept closer...and closer…”

Safiya yawned. Up until the ending, she’d barely been paying attention to the stupid, unrealistic story. However, she felt Ro shaking next to her, which grabbed her attention. “Roi…”

“And closer...and CHOMP!” Roi screamed, jumping up. “The monster gobbled the ten kids up whole!”

Ro screamed and covered her eyes. Teala grabbed JC’s arm. 

“Roi! Stop scaring everyone!” snapped Matt, as he turned to comfort his ‘sister’. 

Nikita rolled her eyes. “Ro and Teala need to toughen up. It’s just a stupid story.”

“Shut up!” snapped Safiya, as she, Matt, and Ro walked to a different part of the camp.

“My stories aren’t stupid!” gasped Roi. He then turned to Teala and said in a much gentler voice. “Sorry Teals, didn’t mean to scare you.”

Teala smiled. “It’s okay.”

“Ok, how about we all calm down,” insisted Mortimer. 

“That’s right, it’s almost nine-thirty.  _ Way _ past time to go to bed,” stated Calliope. 

“Aww, come on! I’m not even tired!” whined Roi. 

“What if a monster comes for us at night?” squeaked Teala.

“Everything will be fine,” said Calliope. “Mortimer and I will keep an eye out for anything.”

Teala seemed to grudgingly accept this and began to prepare for bed. As the kids headed to their own separate areas to brush their teeth, change into pajamas, and use the bathroom, Calliope pulled Mortimer aside. “Mortimer,” she whispered. “Teala claims to have seen something in the woods. Now, I don’t believe in monsters, but she seemed shaken up enough that I’m sure she didn’t see some rabbit. It’s too late to take the kids anywhere, but we should consider returning home tomorrow instead of camping.”

Mortimer nodded. “I agree. I’ll stay up tonight to watch over the kids.”

“I’ll drive us home tomorrow, considering that when you miss even an hour of sleep you become an  _ actual  _ zombie,” teased Calliope. 

Xxx

Once Calliope and Mortimer were in their tent, Matt crept out of the boys’ tent with Blanche and crawled into Rosanna and Safiya’s tent. 

“Girls only, creep!” hissed Colleen.

“Matt!” squealed Ro. “You came!”

“Hey, I couldn’t leave you alone. Not in a place like this.” Matt gave his ‘sister’ a hug, and then hugged Safiya. 

“Let’s have a sleepover party!” squealed Ro. “Colleen, you brought your radio and battery-operated disco ball, right?”

“You know I never leave home without it.”

“I hid some popcorn bags in my duffel bag,” said Ro. “If we don’t play the music too loud, Calliope and Mortimer would never know we were having a party.”

Safiya smiled, knowingly. Calliope and Mortimer would  _ definitely  _ notice and they’d be in  _ big  _ trouble. But who could say no to Ro’s sweet face?

“Fine, fine. I’ll let the boy stay and we can have a  _ little  _ party,” teased Colleen. “I just have to use the bathroom first.”

“I thought you already did.”

“Sometimes people need to go twice! There’s no shame in that!”

Colleen exited the tent and zipped it up behind her. Ro turned to Safiya and Matt, her two favorite people, and said with a big smile. “This is going to be great!”

A piercing shriek of absolute terror split the night air, causing all the birds to fly from the trees. 

And then there was silence. 


End file.
